Just got OVA in Tokya, and Pirates!

[tokyosteve]

Hello all just wanted to introduce myself to the ever growing OVA community, and also ask one or two questions.

First off, in case Clay and others don't know, you can actually pick up the OVA print edition here in Tokyo. I just got it at Yellow Submarine (the only known game store to carry english game books in Tokyo) in Shinjuku yesterday, they had three copies on the shelf (now they have 2 ).

I was attracted by both the art and the smallness of the book, plus it was missing the D20 logo, so I thought I will pick that up and give it a spin. I quite like it so far (still reading all the rules), but I have one or two questions:

(1) What would be the best way to represent large sailing ships in the game? And things that go with ships and pirates, like manuevering a ship, tacking, and most importantly canons! I know I can try to use the "Mecha" for ships, but I am thinking of ships that have like 30 or 40 crew on it.

(2) This would be for my new and fun campaign that is somewhat fantasy based of combining pirates, ninjas, and demons aka the Demon Isles. I got the idea from also purchasing another companies very nice collectiable constructable pirate ship mini game.

Cheers for now,

Tokyo Steve

p.s. I am not actually that big of a magna or Anime fan, I would love to become one, however, in Japan you will find no subtitlte or tranlasted magna or anime. In a very bizarre twist the only two DVD's I have (which are both Miazaki sp? movies, Princess Monoke and Spirited Away) were special ordered from the US, go figure.

[Clay]

Hello all just wanted to introduce myself to the ever growing OVA community, and also ask one or two questions.

First off, in case Clay and others don't know, you can actually pick up the OVA print edition here in Tokyo. I just got it at Yellow Submarine (the only known game store to carry english game books in Tokyo) in Shinjuku yesterday, they had three copies on the shelf (now they have 2 ).

Wild and crazy! Believe it or not, very soon after OVA's PDF release over a year ago, google searches for it revealed a Japanese IRC chat of several people discussing the game. Babelfishing the text revealed little, but it was quite amazing, just the same.

Now you say they carry the book in Japan? THREE no less? It's kind of flattering the store would bother importing such a small release. Thanks for picking it up!

(1) What would be the best way to represent large sailing ships in the game? And things that go with ships and pirates, like manuevering a ship, tacking, and most importantly canons! I know I can try to use the "Mecha" for ships, but I am thinking of ships that have like 30 or 40 crew on it.

OVA mecha will include new rules concerning scale and vehicles, but as a rule of thumb, realize the "norms" for a ship may differ from the norms for humans. What's Quick +3 for a ship is not necessarily the same as Quick +3 for a pirate. Of course, it's usually a moot point. If you have a ship and a pirate getting into a swimming competition...well...

As for actually piloting the suckers, try not to get bogged down in details. Usually a simple statistic for the ship will do. It's not often that the person manning the ship's wheel is going to have all that great of an effect on how the ship performs. A Quick +3 ship is almost always going to outmaneuver a Slow -1 ship, regardless of who's at the wheel. If the crew is hampered (or they're running a skeleton crew, har har) just apply a negative modifier.

But, if such "cheats" don't satisfy you, I really will get the mecha playtest stuff up soon! No really! Honest!

(2) This would be for my new and fun campaign that is somewhat fantasy based of combining pirates, ninjas, and demons aka the Demon Isles. I got the idea from also purchasing another companies very nice collectiable constructable pirate ship mini game.

Yeah, I've seen that in the stores! I think it's made by WizKids, the remaints of what used to be Fasa, creators of Battletech.

p.s. I am not actually that big of a magna or Anime fan, I would love to become one, however, in Japan you will find no subtitlte or tranlasted magna or anime. In a very bizarre twist the only two DVD's I have (which are both Miazaki sp? movies, Princess Monoke and Spirited Away) were special ordered from the US, go figure.

Actually, some of the special edition Japanese versions of those same movies came out in these deluxe packages, including English subs and, when available, the English dub! Then again, I might have that information wrong. It's been quite some time since Miyazaki was a difficult find in the US.

[tokyosteve]

Just wanted to say thanks for the quick reply! So if I understand right, basically if I wanted a pirate ship type of game, just treat the ship as a "character" for the various abilities.

So for example a large ship with a lot of guns might have weapon +5 for a broadside attack, while a small ship with just swivel guns might have a +1. I guess the important aspect is to have a "ship scale" and "character scale", and then apply modifers when mixing the two.

For example (taking from the recently mentioned game), in that game a musketeer gives you an extra cannon shot. If I had a crew of gun weilding marines on a ship I might just give their weapon a +1 bonus to represent the different scales?

I think I can see how this goes. I was going to post this anyway, I have a lot of fun with these kind of systems so if its not too much trouble I was going to kind of do a short "campaign" write up for the two campaigns that I was thinking of trying out.

EDIT: Forget to ask, is it OK to post that type of stuff here on the forums?

The first

Demon Isles - this is a sailing game first and foremost. The game will take place in the "new world" of the demon isles discovered many weeks of sailing from the old country. However to get there you sail through the shadow mists, and enter a land where demons mateirlize from the shadows, and where dreams and nightmares fuel the power of magic. The Demon Isles have lots of wealth, but also a lot of danger. I would probably have a few islands, some ports, 2 different nations battling it out, along with a group that rebelled to form their own kingdom, and pirates. Ninjas of course would be present as well. I will also have some arcane and witchcraft magic fueled by the power of shadow. But in an interested quirk for some RP fun, all the actual power comes from an imp (using the animal companion rules).

The second
Sengoku Jedai (spelling?) The civil war mecha. The emperor is failing, the adminstrative nobles no longer have the money or resources to keep the universe in order. Warlord clans have now taken over soverignity of their systems, and century old family lines now via for power over the universe. Who will be the next Shogun? The characters will either be Ronin, or from the same clan. Lots of little interesting quirks to this one. The weapons they use have been maintained by family gunsmiths for generations. Instead of swords you have pistols. Lots of Gun-fu and Mecha battle fun. Spaceships have to be small, the jump gates are limited. And there is rumors of certain childern being born with abnormal psionic powers? Is this the cause of the Emperor failing? Why are they only born in the peasant class to be snatched away from thier parents by the Enenegmatic Priesthood of the True Light. Is there a greater danger than just the strife of a universe in complete and utter civil war?

Any thoughts on which to tackle first. My goal would be to develop the following for each eventually

- Short Background and Flavor
- Sample Characters
- Sample conventions for using the Ova system and any rules tweaks needed
- Sample Bad Guys
- Sample locations (like a gazetter) and orginizations
- Adventures if I time.

Cheers for now

[Wolfson]

Hmmm...

I hadn't really thought too hard about this, but I wonder how hard it would be to convert some BESM stuff into OVA.

I had previously done a bunch of work on converting 7th Sea (or Swashbuckling Adventures, if you use the D20) into BESM, which included designing a whole bunch of sailing ships into a 'mecha' definition. I'll have to look and see how I might do that in OVA terms...

[TheBouncyPherret]

Hey there, Tokyosteve!! Welcome to the boards!!

I like your campaign ideas, and--if I may--I would point you to my OVA Fan Site.

Also, if you were planning on running either of your campaigns in a PBP fashion, I would point you to my message board.

I know, shameless self-promotion...but a guys gotta get his feet off the ground somehow, right??

Anyway, great to have ya on board!! No pun intended ~_^

TBP

[ComicJam]

Yaarrrrr!
Good to see another OVA madman interested here!
Pirates, you say? Don't get me started on pirates! I think they're much better than ninjas!

Cheers!

P.S. that "Pirates" WizKids game is rather good!

[Clay]

Just wanted to say thanks for the quick reply! So if I understand right, basically if I wanted a pirate ship type of game, just treat the ship as a "character" for the various abilities.

So for example a large ship with a lot of guns might have weapon +5 for a broadside attack, while a small ship with just swivel guns might have a +1. I guess the important aspect is to have a "ship scale" and "character scale", and then apply modifers when mixing the two.

For example (taking from the recently mentioned game), in that game a musketeer gives you an extra cannon shot. If I had a crew of gun weilding marines on a ship I might just give their weapon a +1 bonus to represent the different scales?

That's basically the idea. Once the mecha playtest page is up and going, you'll find the actual rules I've put together for scale differences.

Forget to ask, is it OK to post that type of stuff here on the forums?

Of course.

And wow, the settings sound very cool. I actually like both a lot, but Pirates may be the more "useful" one to go after. I'm almost certain it's a genre OVA will not be tackling in the near future.

And I love pirates...d'arrrr!!

[Wolfson]

Pirates may be the more "useful" one to go after. I'm almost certain it's a genre OVA will not be tackling in the near future.

Yarrrr! And pirates is actually a fairly well-used anime convention, if you think outside the box... You've gotta remember Captain Harlock. I've seen a few other series on the market, but I can't call any to mind.

Hmmm... I may have to do a pirate anime game after I get finished with the current pirate non-anime game...

[tokyosteve]

One of the most popular magna in Japan is about pirates, Sorry I don't know the title since I can't read kanji or even katakana, but I see it on the shelves all the time, and in toy stores, etc., etc.

Besides pirates, ninjas, and Demons. Where can you have that except in Anime Now all I need are dinasours, oh wait, some of the islands can have dinasours on them. A complete game now.

[tokyosteve]

Hey there, Tokyosteve!! Welcome to the boards!!

I like your campaign ideas, and--if I may--I would point you to my OVA Fan Site.


TBP

I checked out your site. Quite nice, useful without being fussy. I would have my own site as well, but I already run one website (a guild site for a certain MMORPG), so I won't be starting another. So go ahead, cut and paste all the stuff that I post to your website. If you want even go ahead and put a dedicated page for the Demon Isles - I will be continuing to update my thread here with PC's, NPC's, Locations, Ships, Ship Rules (at least until Mecha Comes Out), Story Hooks, and maybe even maps.

I won't be doing a PbP game at this time, I have a lot on my plate as it is. (40+ Hour Work Week, Family, MMORPG, Working On TRPG stuff, seems like I juggle).

Cheers,

[Clay]

One of the most popular magna in Japan is about pirates, Sorry I don't know the title since I can't read kanji or even katakana, but I see it on the shelves all the time, and in toy stores, etc., etc.

Probably One Piece, and it is now insanely popular here as well. Just the same, it's not really widespread enough across different shows to warrant a genre book, I don't think. Even if it were, I'm having a hard enough time pumping Fantasy and Mecha out...maybe we should talk about other genres after those. *laughs*

[TheBouncyPherret]

One of the most popular magna in Japan is about pirates, Sorry I don't know the title since I can't read kanji or even katakana, but I see it on the shelves all the time, and in toy stores, etc., etc.

Probably One Piece, and it is now insanely popular here as well. Just the same, it's not really widespread enough across different shows to warrant a genre book, I don't think. Even if it were, I'm having a hard enough time pumping Fantasy and Mecha out...maybe we should talk about other genres after those. *laughs*

Well, I'm sure that tokyosteve could write-up the Pirates' Genre Book. Just pay our dear Clay a bit of money, for licensing fees, and you can make your own Genre Book. Très Simple--that's French for "very simple".

TBP

[tokyosteve]

I think I will just continue to put what I write up here on the boards for the general OVA audience, as long as that is OK with everyone (espically clay). I am not really in the book or gaming buisness, and wouldn't even want to consider trying to get into it at this time in my life. I'm just a fan. I was just pointing out that pirates are really popular right now both in anime and non-anime. That was all. I wasn't expecting a genre book or anything. Frankly, once OVA mecha and Fantasy are out, I think I will everything I ever need for the game.

I am doing just great with the main rulebook right now. I think its very good and very flexabile, and even with all the questions I am asking, those are fine points that in a real game I would just brush over if I didn't know the answer to keep the game going. It is also pretty inuitative to make up new abilities, and for the most part keep them balanced v. other ones by example.

Certaintly if anyone wants to take what I have written and put it up on a fan site, or if Clay wants to take some ideas for his projects, I don't mind at all. I don't have any delusions of granduer, I don't think my stuff is barely good enough to even go on a fan page, but I put it out there since OVA seems to be a fledgling community and having more examples of what you can do with it on the boards of the main site, seem to me to only increase the chance that people want to play it.

Plus you never know when a GM might need something, like an NPC and just want to scan the boards for one to use in a game. Just change the flavor of Wee Bonnie Katie, Call her Deadly Katherine, give her two handguns instead of wheelocks, and deadly stilletos instead of cutlasses and you have your villan for the evening.

[EDIT] From a buisness perspective, I would be wary of trying to get a book to press from scratch right now. Pirates is very popular right now (which is why my FLGS is almost out of packs right now, eventhough they have been gathering dust for months), but it is infeasiable to take a book from idea to rough draft to playtesting to art and layout to printer to distrbuter fast enough to take advantage of the Arrgh Matey Craze(TM). By the time it comes out it will be over, and there will be a different Wow what a cool movie, I gotta get a campaign going for that Craze (TM). If for some reason, you already had a pirate product sitting on the shelf collecting dust now might be the time to get some marketing on it, but if you don't have one and just idea, it would take way too long, which is why I can easily understand Clay's reluctance to even tacklet the genre with all the other stuff he has on his plate. Pirates is vert niche type of genre for RPG's and one (with the exception of 7th sea) that has not seen a lot of good success. Luckily we have OVA, so we can do our own and skip that whole long process I mentioned above.

I remember when the first batman movies came out, luckily a certain game company had the idea to make a digest version of their flagship system just for batman, and get into other stores besides Game Stores. I know several folks who that was their first RPG.
[EDIT]

Cheers for now,

[Bhikku]

Yar, mateys! I too am working on a pirate campaign - also inspired by certain films (coff coff) and certain constructable games (ahem)... As some folks know i'm sort of merging my OVA with Fudge rules, but that's beside the point.

I've done two elements in my ship-to-ship battles. The first is that each round the ships attempt to outmaneuver each other - trying to get to a position where you can fire broadsides but the other guy has a bad firing vantage on you - modified by things like Quick and Slow, and by the helmsmen's Pilot abilities. A really good maneuver check could add a bonus to your attack or defense for the round.

The other is that for combinine character-scale and ship-scale damage, i figure that something intended to harm flesh-and-bone is darn near useless against a ship - maybe some Nigh Impossible success, or a damage total exceeding +5, would be good. (or for the slightly wackier physics of most anime, just use the collateral damage rules as normal, figuring that enough damage to harm the structure will do a certain amount of damage against the ship - perhaps whatever exceeds the collatoral damage level?) As for firing cannons on characters, I use what I call the "saturday morning" rule, which is that ship-scale weapons inevitably blow up scenery, sending everyone diving for cover and raining debris on them, so that they take normal damage (no bonus for the scale of the weapon), and are probably face-down in the dirt (and may have to waste a move getting up). Probably treat it as the Area Effect perk.

That, of course, might not suit your play style.